Molly Perkins, PhD, MA

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Department of Medicine

Biography

Dr. Perkins is a social gerontologist and medical sociologist with research interests in social determinants of health and disparities, aging in minority and vulnerable populations, functional wellness, and long-term care. She is a National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIH/NCMHD) Scholar; a primary focus of her work is on addressing housing and care needs of disadvantaged elderly populations.

Her recent research focuses on Aging and HIV/AIDS, palliative care, and polypharmacy/medication management. She is currently Principal Investigator of an R01 study (http://grantome.com/grant/NIH/R01-AG047408-01A1) funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIH/NIA); led by a multidisciplinary team of social scientists and clinician researchers, the overall aim of this 5-year project is to identify best practices for end-of-life and palliative care in assisted living and contribute to ongoing efforts to improve end-of-life and palliative care in long-term care more generally. She also is funded by the Emory Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) for two projects aimed at identifying modifiable social determinants at multiple social-ecological levels associated with health risk behavior and HIV disease severity in HIV- infected older adults. Other research as co-investigator includes funding from NIH/NIA (http://grantome.com/grant/NIH/R01-AG044368-02), the Patient-Centered Research Outcome Research Institute (PCORI), the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Rural Health (ORH), and the John A. Hartford Foundation.

Dr. Perkins joined the faculty of the Division of General Medicine and Geriatrics in 2011 and holds a joint appointment with the Atlanta VA Medical Center as a research health scientist. Dr. Perkins is Co-Director of the Emory CFAR HIV and Aging Scientific Working Group (SWG) and Atlanta Site Director for Research for the Birmingham/Atlanta VA Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center (GRECC). She has an affiliate faculty position in the Department of Sociology at Emory University and has adjunct faculty appointments at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University and the Gerontology Institute at Georgia State University.

Dr. Perkins has mentored students and junior faculty members conducting qualitative and mixed methods research projects in the Emory School of Medicine and various other schools/departments at Emory University, as well as graduate students from Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and The University of Georgia.